Via iStockphoto / @amynathalyq TikTok
A Texas woman films a Whataburger worker making sweet tea with a shocking amount of sugar.
There’s sweet tea, and then there’s Southern sweet tea, and Whataburger may have revealed the difference.
A Texas woman got a peek into how the beloved Southern beverage is made while waiting in a Whataburger drive-thru and posted it online. Let’s just say the recipe seems plenty sweet.
What Did This Whataburger Customer Catch Worker Doing?
TikTok user Amyq (@amynathalyq) films through a vehicle window. In their drive-thru vantage point, an employee prepares what appears to be a fresh batch of sweet tea, starting with grabbing a large pitcher and dumping a bag of Domino sugar into it.
It feels like the bag will never empty, and once it does, half of the pitcher is full of just sugar. After tossing the bag, the employee then pours tea, filling the rest of the pitcher and giving a new meaning to “half and half.”
No measuring cups in sight. Just sugar, tea, and evidently a lot of arm strength.
“That’s Texas sweet tea for you,” the text over the video reads as the employee reaches for a whisk.
In the background, laughter erupts as someone lets out a very audible “God—–!”
“All that sugar,” the user writes in the caption, “that’s why I only drink water!!!”
The video has since amassed more than 47,000 likes and 1,100 comments. Surprisingly, viewers weren’t disgusted.
People Defend Whataburger’s Sweet Tea Recipe
While some people might see an unhealthy pitcher of sugar, others saw a perfectly normal Southern tradition.
“It is the South. That is how sweet tea is done. That is why it is called sweet tea and not iced tea like everywhere else,” one commenter wrote.
Another offered a shorter endorsement.
“Just as God intended,” they wrote.
“That’s the only way to make sweet tea correctly,” another commenter joked.
Apparently, in Texas, there’s no such thing as too much sugar—only tea that hasn’t reached its full potential.
Is That Really How To Make Sweet Tea?
However, not everyone was focused on defending the sweetness. Some viewers wanted to offer their expertise.
Several commenters suggested the employee wasn’t preparing a single pitcher of tea to serve directly to customers. Instead, she appeared to be making a concentrated sugar mixture that would later be combined with a larger batch, a few TikTok commenters mentioned.
“She’s just dissolving the sugar, she’s going to pour it back into the container [of tea],” one user wrote.
Others agreed, pointing out that dissolving sugar in a smaller amount of liquid can make it easier to incorporate into a large dispenser.
Some even offered their own shortcuts, questioning why bother with an extra pitcher when the employee could add the sugar directly into the tea dispenser and whisk it in there.
For these self-appointed sweet tea experts, the real controversy wasn’t how much sugar the employee used but the employee’s method.
Is Southern Sweet Tea Too Sweet?
Maybe for one’s health.
Sweet tea is a Southern staple and traditionally made by adding sugar to freshly brewed tea while the liquid is still warm enough to dissolve it easily.
The exact amount varies depending on the recipe, restaurant, and serving size.
For context, the American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugar to around 25 grams per day for most women and 36 grams for most men. A single tablespoon of granulated sugar contains roughly 12.5 grams, meaning even a few tablespoons can quickly add up.
While the Whataburger employee’s technique sparked plenty of discussion, the video alone isn’t enough to calculate the drink’s nutritional content.
Texans Aren’t Apologizing For Their Sweet Tea
If there’s one thing the TikTok comments section made clear, it’s that Southern sweet tea has some fiercely loyal defenders. The employee’s technique simply seemed like a family recipe.
BroBible reached out to the creator and also to Whataburger.